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Science Technology

Hadron Collider Relaunch Delayed 223

Posted by kdawson from the earth-gets-a-reprieve dept.
SpuriousLogic writes "There's been another delay in the schedule announced for getting the Large Hadron Collider switched back on — now it's September 2009, a year after it shut down due to a malfunction. Scientists had said they expected the $5.4B machine to be repaired by November 2008, but then pushed the date back to June 2009, before the latest delay."
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Hadron Collider Relaunch Delayed More

Hadron Collider Relaunch Delayed

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  • Incredible (Score:5, Funny)

    by StupiderThanYou ( 896020 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @06:00AM (#26795379)
    It was only on a few days, and already they've achieved time travel.

  • Its 2009, not 2008 (Score:2, Informative)

    by chfriley ( 160627 )

    Just fyi. And last year was 2008, not 2007.

    ---
    SpuriousLogic writes
    "There's been another delay in the schedule announced for getting the Large Hadron Collider switched back on -- now it's September 2008, a year after it shut down due to a malfunction. Scientists had said they expected the $5.4B machine to be repaired by November 2007, but then pushed the date back to June 2008, before the latest delay."
      technologytimesummarywrongsummary

  • Fast! (Score:5, Funny)

    by bablefisk ( 115988 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @06:02AM (#26795395)

    November 2007 was a bit optimistic, but september 2008 is still a really fast fix!

  • That's more than just a typo... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Arancaytar ( 966377 ) <arancaytar.ilyaran@gmail.com> on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @06:06AM (#26795419) Homepage

    That entire news item is outdated. :P

  • The article [bbc.co.uk] apparently fails to contain any full dates, and no years.

    See? This is why you always have to use four-digit years when specifying any date, even months, otherwise the 'software', *eyes original poster*, gets confused.
    • ...and you should also always specify whether it's AD or BC, whether you use julian or gregorian or some other calendar, and also the direction the time flows in in your corner of the universe. I think you can safely omit the name of your universe, though.

      • Of course it's AD. You don't have to say it's AD. It's 2009. It's not like anything happened in 2009BC. Well, not in Geneva

        • Re:Confusion about Dates (Score:4, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @07:39AM (#26795951)

          It's not like anything happened in 2009BC. Well, not in Geneva

          As a resident, I can assure you that unless you have very deep pockets or actually work for CERN (and even then...), nothing happens here anyway. It's the Indianapolis of Europe.

    • *Page last updated at 22:43 GMT, Monday, 9 February 2009*

  • Slashdot editors earning their keep...

    When are you guys demanding a slice of the government bail-out then?

  • Wow! Looks like it's already working!

  • So this thing is so advanced that it can time travel into the past and delay its own repairs?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aliquis ( 678370 )

      Didn't it rather make them happen early? Fixed september 2008 isn't what I would call a delay.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by timster ( 32400 )

      No, it's so dangerous that it actually destroys the entire universe. Therefore, the only universes left are the ones where the LHC did not work, such as this one.

  • 2012 is fast approaching (Score:5, Funny)

    by VMaN ( 164134 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @06:20AM (#26795501) Homepage

    I have a sneaking suspicion the repairs won't be done till 2012... :| Making the prophecy come true after all.

  • Just to clarify (Score:4, Informative)

    by Shrike82 ( 1471633 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @06:25AM (#26795529)
    This seems to be a case of a poor article summary, rather than an actual year old story somehow making it onto /.

    TFA actually mentions no years, just "this year" and "last year".

  • When a quote isn't a quote (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lionfire ( 103856 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @07:30AM (#26795885) Homepage Journal
    It would seem that SpuriousLogic didn't actually say that [slashdot.org]. Not only is there no mention of years in his/her summary, but there are other minor differences. Slashdot editors: putting those little quotation marks around something and attributing it to someone else is fine, just so long as you don't change it.

    • Re:When a quote isn't a quote (Score:5, Informative)

      by 1u3hr ( 530656 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @07:47AM (#26795991)

      The original submission:

      SpuriousLogic writes
      "The Large Hadron Collider could be switched back on in September a year after it shut down due to a malfunction and several months later than expected.
      Scientists had said they expected the £3.6bn ($5.4bn) machine to be repaired by November, but then pushed the date back to June, before the latest delay."

      So we can thank kdawson for fucking it up and attributing his/her errors to someone else.

    • Thank You! It was not me that placed those years into the summary! I copied exactly what was on the BBC article. They years were placed in by the ./ mod.

  • Quick (Score:2)

    by Xest ( 935314 )

    Someone fix the collider, it's taken out the space time continuum with it.

  • They must have, because according to the summary they have started managing the LHC like my Director does: "Your system will be fully operational last week, at the latest!"

  • Analysis from the Washington Post (Score:5, Funny)

    by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @07:47AM (#26795993) Journal

    Here: [washingtonpost.com]

    'CERN* management today confirmed the restart schedule [translation: announced another delay] for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) resulting from the recommendations from last week's Chamonix workshop. The new schedule foresees [not that you'd want to bet your life on it] first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October. A short technical stop has also been foreseen over the Christmas period. The LHC will then run through to autumn next year, ensuring that the experiments have adequate data to carry out their first new physics analyses and have results to announce in 2010. The new schedule also permits the possible collisions of lead ions in 2010.

    'This new schedule represents a delay of six weeks with respect to the previous schedule, which foresaw the LHC "cold [sic?????] at the beginning of July". The cause of this delay is due to several factors such as implementation of a new enhanced protection system for the busbar and magnet splices; installation of new pressure-relief valves to reduce the collateral damage in case of a repeat [explosion] incident; application of more stringent safety constraints [no more drinking contests in the tunnel]; and scheduling constraints associated with helium transfer [because the scientists can't resist making their voices sound funny] and storage.'

    • 'This new schedule represents a delay of six weeks with respect to the previous schedule, which foresaw the LHC "cold [sic?????] at the beginning of July".

      Nothing wrong with that sentence. The LHC runs at 4 degrees Kelvin (or -269 degrees celsius). It takes weeks to cool it to that temperature so if the goal is "cold at the beginning of July" that means everything is sealed up (no more human access) and they start cooling by the beginning of June.

      --Atlantix

  • Launch?! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sockatume ( 732728 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @07:48AM (#26796003)
    I'm all for moving it to a less controversial, orbital location, but this feature creep is getting ridiculous.

  • Well, I guess that despite the cost of these repairs, they will be saving money off their electricity bill [ieee.org].

  • One extra year... (Score:3, Funny)

    by wvmarle ( 1070040 ) on Tuesday February 10, 2009 @08:11AM (#26796141)
    ...for us to live until the earth is swallowed by a black hole that accidentally did not collapse.

    I have stopped paying my life insurance already because in a year I may be dead but there will also be no-one left behind to pay out the policy.

    Or to receive it for that matter.

  • Cern had also said new protection systems would be added as part of £14m repairs.
    It blamed the shutdown on the failure of a single, badly soldered electrical connection in one of its super-cooled magnet sections.

    I wonder if there was a headhunt for the oaf with the soldering iron that cost them £14m ?

  • Looking at the only useful thing to have come out of the LHC project so far, I predict it's just delays in the production of the video clip for their new rap song.

  • With 40% -50% of the world's wealth disappearing [so far] in the global financial crisis, limping projects like US space program and the LHC are tempting targets for cuts or elimination.

  • All this was discussed back in December. The LHC staff had been arguing over whether to go for a quick fix or a major redesign of the magnet protection systems and liquid helium pressure relief valves, and the new CERN director decided to go for the major redesign. Good move. Otherwise this would probably happen again in the years to come.

    It's a big fix. Most of the magnets have to be physically moved along the tunnel to the lift shaft, brought to the surface, overhauled, checked out, and returned to

  • OK, 10 years late... but

    "This Episode... This Episode.... This Episode..."

    Rock music, explosions, Eagle spacecraft spinning, Martin Landau... Barbara Bain....

  • This will on having been the first post, if my calculations will be correct.

  • There are two theories for why the LHC can never work.

    The first is because as soon as they turn it on, it does something bad that destroys the earth and possibly the universe. But the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, so the universe constantly splits and we live on in the branches where the LHC fails to operate due to some coincidence or other.

    The second theory is that the LHC will generate Higgs particles in quantity, but due to some unusual quantum properties of such particles, the

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